TRUCKERS' COMPLAIN * Canada - Trucking firms, drivers debate flying rock dangers

Trucking companies:  Rocks flying off the backs of trucks and striking car windshields don't add up

Ottawa,CAN -CBC News -Mar 24, 2011: ...   Nearly a week after an Ottawa woman's terrifying near-miss on a west-end road, in which a rock smashed her windshield and showered her with shards of glass, truckers are saying their loads can rarely be faulted in such incidents...  The more likely scenario, companies said, is that a chunk of asphalt or roadside rubble can get lodged between a truck's dual tires and later get flung backwards...  But dozens of motorists who have had their windows struck by rocks beg to differ...  Kyla Helpin was driving north on Carp Road near McGee Side Road last Friday when she said a "baseball-sized" rock fell from a passing dump truck and shattered the windshield in front of her face...  Jason Birch, a father of two, was killed in an eerily similar incident last October...  Tracy Braun was unequivocal about what happened to her when she was working as a first-aid attendant for a construction company...   "It literally came straight at me," she said. "Definitely, it came off the truck. There was no doubt about it. I saw it coming right at me" ...    (Photo by Kyla Helpin - A rock shattered the top of the windshield of Kyla Helpin's car last Friday)